There was a time, not so long ago, when the people who kept us safe and the people who educated our children were treated with some respect by Republicans.

Not so with Willard Mitt Romney. In Mitt Romney’s world these are the villains. These are the people who caused our financial problems!

Last week Mitt Romney singled out teachers, fire fighters and cops as the cause of budget problems. This is not the first time this campaign he has advocated cuts to education and public safety.

Last month, with all evidence to contrary, Mitt Romney told a roundtable of teachers that there was no evidence that smaller class sizes produced better results and that as Governor of Massachusetts he had moved to put more kids in the class room.

The teachers were shocked and politely disagreed. Why? Because the idea that results are the same in larger class sizes is a flat out lie.

The truth is, long before there was a financial crisis and long before this recession, Mitt Romney took an axe to education and to public safety as the Governor of Massachusetts.

As Governor he reduced funding for smaller class sizes. He also proposed eliminating the funding for early literacy and full day kindergarten. He vetoed a bill for universal pre-kindergarten. He cut the budgets for Head Start and special education as well.

Mitt Romney questioned the benefits of early education as well as smaller class sizes.

He was also no friend of fire fighters and cops in Massachusetts. He cut state funding and tried to strip collective bargaining rights from firefighters and police officers.

Mitt Romney likes firing people. He said so himself.

Romney also quit before he got fired. He didn’t run for reelection. He didn’t want to defend his record.

But in the months ahead he is going to have to defend cutting education, questioning the value of smaller class sizes and early education and questioning the value of teachers, cops and fire fighters.

About Bill Buck

Bill Buck is Democratic strategist, President of the Buck Communications Group, a media relations and new media strategies consulting business based in Washington, DC, and Managing Director of the online ad firm Influence DSP. He has over twenty years of international and national communications experience. The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CBS Local.